Does Colt McCoy give the Redskins any hope?

If the Redskins are going to keep their season alive, Colt McCoy has to bounce back in a big way.

In a span of four days, things have gone from bad to worse for the Washington Redskins and their fans.

On Sunday, they were 6-3 and in first place in the NFC East. They had one of the NFL’s best regular season quarterbacks in Alex Smith leading the way, and it looked like they were headed straight for a surprise division title and playoff appearance.

And then reality hit the Redskins hard. In Sunday’s loss to the Houston Texans, Smith gruesomely broke his leg on the 33rd anniversary of Joe Theismann’s career-ending injury, leaving the Redskins to turn to backup quarterback Colt McCoy.

On a Thanksgiving Day battle with the Dallas Cowboys with first place on the line, McCoy just couldn’t come through as the Redskins lost 31-23 to surrender their division lead. McCoy showed some good signs, such as two touchdown passes and 268 passing yards.

But the stat that really stands out is three interceptions, including a killer one in the closing minutes as Washington was desperately trying to get back into the game.

After witnessing McCoy’s return on Thursday, does he give the Redskins any hope to make the playoffs? Or is it time for ‘Skins fans to throw in the towel on the 2018 season?

Well, there’s not much hope. But it’s too soon to give up entirely.

The jitters we saw from McCoy could be due to the fact that he hasn’t played in an NFL game in three years, and hasn’t made an actual start in four. He was also unexpectedly thrown into this situation completely out of nowhere, suddenly asked to make his first start since 2014 in a game with first place up for grabs.

There was bound to be some rust. The key for McCoy and the Redskins will be to quickly shake this loss off and rebound against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football. Any hope the Redskins have of making the playoffs are desperately clinging to a bounce back performance next week.

If McCoy is unable to clear up the rust before next Monday, then it will probably be the final nail in the coffin for this 2018 Redskins season.